| Our Christian history and tradition is just full of gold: stories, people, traditions and prayers that have inspired and nurtured peoples’ faith and helped them on their walk with Jesus through life. Here is one such prayer…. |
 There is so much in life that can leave us feeling frustrated, angry and powerless. The Psalmists were no strangers to the suffering and injustice that leaves us feeling these ways. In many of the Psalms they are quite happy to let loose on God their anger and frustration with the state of the world. This shows that we need never be ashamed of our feelings, even the ones we are not proud of. God is big enough to handle all our thoughts and feelings. In the face of such feelings, Psalm 37 is a prayer that gives us perspective and practical advice our how to deal with life’s frustrations and powerlessness. At its heart the message of the Psalm speaks to the temptations we have to act out of our anger and frustration. It is okay to feel particular ways, but not all feelings are good to act on. The Psalm contrasts the evil people commit out of anger and frustration to make them powerful and get ahead in life. These are people who take the short cut to getting what they want. However, the Psalm makes it plain that in the end the evil and injustice of the world will all come to nothing. Evil doesn’t lead to the results it promises. Therefore, from this Psalm’s perspective it is best to be on the side of righteousness, that is faithfulness to God and His way. This is the true way to life and dealing with our problems. God knows our situations and the desperate places people find themselves in, and the good news is He promises that we don’t have to turn to evil ways to deal with them. The advice is to simply offer all our desires to have things sorted out to God, and then wait patiently for Him to act. God can be trusted to do the right thing for us. It is interesting though that the Psalm encourages us to take some action and gives us expectations about how we will need to have patience if we take this approach to life. The action it invites is for us to act with integrity no matter what. To continue doing the right thing even if it doesn’t seem to be helping us. Jesus himself took this way of life to its logical end, and in the face of extreme persecution and evil it led him to his death. In the face of our own difficulties (and difficult people) it is easy to be tempted to give up the way of integrity and trust. Perhaps it would be easier to just keep our mouth shut in the face of that problem, or tell a little lie there, or manipulate that person here, or push people around with our words if it means it will sort things out? That would be better than us getting hurt or missing out, right? The Psalm says that we take this path of integrity and trust in God in the hope that we will be the ones who will triumph in the end. We are the ones who in the end will prosper, have safety, and receive peace and our hearts desire. However, the Psalm seems to think that this way of life will require patience. In some ways it is very simply invitation, give it all to God and then wait. We wont’t see all those promises fulfilled straight away. It is not an answer to the immediate difficulty and suffering, the anger and frustration we feel. It may even seem like we have lost, and all our integrity and trust was in vain. But it is an answer if we are willing to wait. Just think of Jesus going to the cross. What was he thinking and feeling in those moments? Would his Father save him? I suppose he didn’t know the answer to that question till he woke up on Easter morning. He did not suffer in vain, he did not do what was right in vain, and his trust in God saw him become more that a conquer! So this prayer gives us the perspective of Jesus on our lives. And invites us to take action by keeping our integrity in the midst of anger and frustration, take it all to God, and wait patiently, trusting that He will make all things right. |